Well, I managed to travel and blog, but couldn’t manage it with a visitor in the house. Strange how that happens. On the plus side, it was a fabulous visit, and I played a lot of pool, some of it even quite creditable at times! It is very hard for me to maintain a consistently …
Continue reading The Writing Life: Distraction and Distillation
Last week I was going to write this column, but got distracted by a blogging landmark. So here we go! Now I’ve always wanted to write fantasy. I have a few memories of my life before I wanted to write tales of magic and wonder, but there aren’t that many of them. One is of …
Continue reading Why I Write Fantasy: The Illusion of Control
The list of things to do in the writing life never seems to get smaller. Not only that, but as you move forward and learn more about what you can do to improve your writing and further your career, you can’t help but run into things you probably should have done earlier. Much earlier. It …
Continue reading The Writing Life: Sometimes Sleep is the Answer
I was going to write about my megalomania and need for control and how that factors into my writing choices this week, because recently I’ve been all too zen talking about acceptance and revised visions of what success means to me nowadays, and I wanted to remind myself that I’m still a potentially delusional patient …
I’m beginning to feel the fear. In a good way. I have deadlines looming, and many miles to go before dawn. Right now there is actual uncertainty about whether or not I’ll get everything done on time. This is okay. Not the idea of missing a deadline, but feeling the fear early enough that I …
Continue reading The Writing Life: Feeling the Fear, but Still Having Time for Fun
Glen Clova, orienteering like a ranger or druid or both, the summit of Arthur’s Seat at sunrise, the Trossachs and trout over fire, Loch Katrine swimming, the shock of freezing, the amazement of finding warmer currents and following their course, shivering anew every time they were lost, wet bracken and green ravines down to running …
Continue reading Why I Write Fantasy: Memories of Nature and Other Fragments
Last week I talked about what success meant for me nowadays. A big part of why the shape of success has changed for me over the years is a growing acceptance of the things I can and cannot control in this writing life. I was very unrealistic in my youth. I wanted it all, but …
First things first: I don’t write fantasy because of games. I was entranced by fantasy first, games came later. However, there can be a positive interaction between playing games, exercising imagination, and coming up with story ideas. There is one as-yet unwritten story cycle that is definitely based on something I wanted to do in …
Continue reading Why I Write Fantasy: The Games of Fantasy Part 1: Game of Dracula
It’s a long road I took to publishing my own book, and being comfortable with calling myself a writer. A longer road than I would advise most other folk to take. But the good thing about taking the scenic route is I’ve made sure by now of what I want, and what I’m prepared to …
I grew up in the 70s and 80s. Fantasy existed in book form, but in other media it was pretty scarce, especially in a UK where only three TV channels existed. For a child looking for images to fit his imaginings of monsters and adventure, it was to the creepy and the kooky that it …
Continue reading Why I Write Fantasy: The Influence of Horror
Roderick T. Macdonald 